Sonic Adventure Infinity 2: The Twilight Phantom
by ShadowRuler55
Summary: After the fall of Cinerate, things seem to go back to normal, until now. Sonic now has to face the phantom, who has returned for revenge, and himself. Sonic will have to control himself when he turns into a phantom, at night. Sequel to SAI. R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Twilight Twilight

Sonic was ready to fight evil once again. He recently married Amy, and he felt excited about this. After the fall of their greatest enemy, Cinerate, everything seemed to go back to normal, except that Sonic was still receiving the energy and new abilities from the Chaos Emeralds every time he touched one. This he still couldn't explain, but he was hoping to find out soon. Where we last saw Sonic, he was about to fight Eggman in the city with Amy, Shadow, Knuckles, and Static.

"Hehe. Nice to see you again after a while Sonic. I am so looking forward to this!"

"So am I Eggman!" Sonic shouted. "You won't get away with this, and I'm going to put a stop to this!"

"Hohohohoho! I'd like to see you try!" Eggman shouted back.

Sonic and his friends were just about at Eggman's new robot, when Eggman launched missiles at them. They all were able to dodge the attack, and Sonic attacked the cockpit of the robot, but Eggman dodged it as well.

"Missed me by a mile!" Eggman said.

"Not this time!" Amy said as she took out her hammer and attacked the cockpit.

"Ugh! Is that all you got?" Eggman asked.

Shadow came up to the robot and used Chaos Control. Because of it, Shadow manipulated time and attacked the cockpit many times in succession.

"Ah! You'll pay for that!" Eggman shouted to Shadow.

"Taste this Eggman!" Static shouted. He struck electricity at Eggman, but then it reflected back at Static, but it didn't affect Static at all.

"Like my new upgrade Static? There's a force field around me that repels all electricity! This should protect me from your electricity."

"Well let's see you dodge this!" Knuckles shouted. He and Amy attacked the legs of the robot with incredible strength. This in turn tripped the robot, and Eggman fell over.

"Now's our chance everyone! Attack!" Knuckles shouted. Everyone did everything they could to attack Eggman, but Eggman got up quickly.

"I'm finishing it off here Eggman!" Sonic shouted.

"How so?" Eggman asked him.

"This is how!" Sonic started concentrating, and he started glowing green. He turned into the thorn plant and dashed at Eggman. However, Eggman stepped to the side and dodged it, and the robot's arm became a sharp blade. He sliced at Sonic, and Sonic returned to his normal form in pain. Then, the robot took its other arm, and punched Sonic upwards with tremendous force.

"GYYYAAAAHHH!!" Sonic yelled as he was launched miles and miles away.

"SONIC!!" Amy yelled. "You are going to pay now Eggman!!" Amy shouted to him.

"You might as well give up now! Now that Sonic's out of the way you four don't stand a chance!"

"You want to say that to my face again?!" Shadow shouted.

"How about I say it to you with my fist?" Eggman shouted back. He launched an attack to Shadow. Shadow dodged the attack, and so did Knuckles and Static, but not Amy.

"Amy!" they all shouted.

Eggman pinned her down to the ground, and put a force field around the other three to make sure they didn't get in the way. Amy saw that the sun was setting, and twilight was near.

"Say goodbye Amy Rose!" Eggman shouted to her.

Suddenly, a roar in the background disrupted Eggman. Eggman sent his reinforcements to secure the area. He was also looking for the thing that roared. But he couldn't see anything else besides the shadows cast by the streetlights.

Suddenly, one of Eggman's robots was destroyed. Eggman looked in the same direction, but couldn't see anything. All of a sudden, something came out from the shadows. It was completely dark, so no one knew what it looked like, but it looked like the phantom earlier, with long arms and tall legs. But he was dead, so it wasn't him, and it had Sonic's quills at the back of its head. But it couldn't be Sonic, it can't be.

Whatever it was, it was destroying Eggman's robots in a snap. Finally, it came up to Eggman's huge robot. Eggman tried killing the thing, but it was too fast for him. It jumped on the robot's back, and dug it's arms into it, and then it pulled some sort of battery-like thing.

"NO!" Eggman shouted. "DON'T TAKE THAT OUT!" But it was already too late. It was the main power for Eggman's robot. Then, Eggman's robot collapsed. The force field around Shadow, Knuckles, and Static disappeared. Amy went to thank the thing, but it sneered and jumped up and disappeared.

"What was that thing?" Knuckles asked astonished.

"I don't know, but whatever it was it saved our lives." Amy said.

"True, but now we need to find Sonic!" Static reminded them.

Everyone nodded and they headed off in the direction Sonic was launched. After searching for him for a while, they still couldn't find him, and they decided to go home.

"We need to find Sonic soon!!" Amy said worried. "I'm very worried about my new husband!"

"Amy, you just got married! Calm down!" Shadow said.

"If you were married to him, you would understand!" Amy said.

"That's true, but I'm not gay!" Shadow said.

"No, but you are emo." Knuckles said under his breath.

"I heard that you stupid, gullible echidna!" Shadow yelled. "Just because I'm a black hedgehog, doesn't mean I'm emo!"

"You want to say that to my face again?!" Knuckles shouted back.

"Guys, stop fighting!" Static said as he struck them with electricity. They both got shocked and stopped fighting.

"Look, we can't find Sonic now. We'll try again tomorrow, and I'm hoping we will find him tomorrow." Static said. "But for now, let's go home to Cream's house."

They nodded and they arrived at Cream's house, but when they entered, they had a surprise. Sonic was there, but badly injured.

"SONIC!!" Amy yelled. She went over to him and hugged him.

"Whoa, calm down Amy! I'm a little rusty right now!" Sonic said. "How'd you guys beat Eggman without me?"

"Well, we didn't, but we had a little help, from an unknown source." Shadow answered.

"Really?"

"Yeah." Amy said. "By the way, how'd you get here? I thought you were down and out."

"Well, he just came in here, saying he was exhausted, and so we took care of him." Cream answered.

"The last thing I remember is that I was knocked out and then I went to Cream's house somehow."

"Eerie." Knuckles said.

"Tell me about it!" Sonic replied. "Well, I'm off to bed. Goodnight everyone!" Sonic said as he went up the stairs.

"Hmm." Static thought.

"What is it Static?" Amy asked him.

"Something's strange about Sonic's story. He said he was knocked out, but then he was walking to Cream's house. There's no way that could've happened."

"Well, at least he's alright." Amy replied. "Now, I think it's about time we hit the hay." She said.

"She's right. Let's just go to bed." Knuckles said. Everyone agreed, and they headed up the stairs, with Static still pondering about Sonic's weird story, and the mysterious help that they received tonight.


	2. Phantom Sonic

Phantom Sonic

Phantom Sonic

The next day, Sonic felt very weird. Instead of feeling better, he actually felt worse. He also felt exhausted.

"Morning Sonic!" Amy said as she walked in the room. "You feeling any better?"

"Quite the opposite!" Sonic answered. "I actually feel worse. I feel even more exhausted than yesterday."

"Really? That's strange."

"Yeah. Well, I guess I'd better get up. There's no sense in wasting the day away!" And with that, he got out of bed and ran out the door.

Amy was still puzzled of why Sonic wasn't feeling any better. She just shrugged and went downstairs, but realized Sonic wasn't there.

"Where did Sonic go?" she asked Tails.

"Sonic went out." Tails said. "As usual."

"Again? That blue hedgehog can sometimes really burn me up! I wanted to talk to him!"

"Well, I don't think he's going **extremely** far. I think he's just taking a walk in the city. Or running in his case." Tails responded.

"I might be able to catch him, but still, I can't run as fast as him. Besides, the city's huge! I would have no idea where he would be in the city."

"Well, it's your choice if you want to catch up with him or not."

But by this time, Tails realized that Amy was already gone.

"I guess she chose to chase Sonic." He said to himself.

Meanwhile in the city, Sonic was running in the city, dodging all the cars that came by him. But he was thinking why he was exhausted, and why he didn't feel any better. Whenever he needed to think about something, he would run. Sonic ran out of the city to the place where Eggman launched him last night. He just stood there, thinking of what he did. But still, he couldn't remember anything besides fainting and then walking to Cream's house.

_"What was I doing yesterday?"_ Sonic thought to himself. _" I just don't see how one minute I'm unconscious, then the next minute I'm walking to Cream's house."_

"This doesn't make sense!" Sonic said out loud.

"Tell me about it." Amy said behind him.

Sonic yelped and jumped up. "Don't scare me like that!" Sonic scolded her.

"You shouldn't be the one talking! You scare me all the time when you just disappear like that!"

"True, but this is important. I need to think about what happened."

"Well, I came here to talk to you about that." Amy said. "Do you think that something mysterious and evil is happening within you Sonic? That's what I think."

"Mysterious? Evil? Why would anything evil happen within me? I'm not evil at all."

"That's true Sonic, but to be totally honest, this might be part of the mystery of the Chaos Emeralds."

"What mystery?" Sonic asked her.

"Well, you know, every time you touch a Chaos Emerald, you get this new and mysterious power. That's been happening lately."

"I know that but…"

His walkie-talkie interrupted him.

"Sonic! Sonic! It's an emergency!" It was Knuckles.

"What is it Knuckles?" Sonic asked him.

"The seven Chaos Emeralds that we kept safe are missing!! It's like they disappeared overnight! You need to come over here quick!"

"WHAT? I'm on it!" Sonic shouted back. He turned off his walkie-talkie and ran back to Cream's house. Amy was upset that Sonic left her behind.

"Doesn't he ever think of me?" Amy complained.

When Sonic got back, he saw the safe that they kept the emeralds in. However, it looked like the safe was nearly torn apart.

"It looks like the safe was torn apart!" Sonic yelled.

"No duh! Ya' think?!" Shadow yelled to Sonic. _"Idiot."_ He thought to himself.

"Who could've done this?" Sonic asked.

"Well, we know already that these were claws that tore it apart." Tails said as he examined the safe. "But this was no animal. If it was, then it must've been an extremely strong one. An ordinary animal with claws wouldn't be able to tear it apart like this."

"Then what else could it be?" Knuckles asked.

Static started to think. "There are two possibilities." He said.

"Like what?" Sonic asked.

"Well, it might've been you, if you could still turn into a werehog, like that one time…"

"Of course not!" Sonic shouted out. "I broke that spell or curse, or whatever you call it, months ago!"

Static seemed annoyed. "I was getting to my second possibility, until you interrupted me."

"Sorry." Sonic apologized.

"Anyway, my second thought was that this probably was the cause of, and call me crazy, the phantom."

"Impossible! The phantom's dead! I killed him a month ago! You are crazy!" Sonic yelled.

"I was being sarcastic with the crazy thing Sonic, but I do agree that it is crazy, and the phantom should be dead. But you gotta' admit, that phantom really has his ways of surviving. He doesn't die that easily."

"Isn't there a more logical explanation?" Sonic asked.

"My explanation wasn't clear enough? Thanks for the criticism Sonic. You do realize I am in the room right?" Static said sarcastically.

"Sorry. I got a lot on my mind right now. There are many things that have happened recently that I can't explain. And now this happens." Sonic said as he slouched down in a chair. "This just adds more misery and mayhem to my mind. Things couldn't get worse could they?"

"They could." Shadow remarked. "**You** could be the one responsible for stealing the emeralds."

Everyone looked at Shadow.

"Shadow, why would I steal them? There's no way I could! I bet it was Eggman. He probably used his robots to destroy the safe." Sonic said.

"Yeah, but Eggman is always the main suspect. Besides, if Eggman destroyed the safe, he would've destroyed the house as well."

"He might've snuck in, took the safe outside, and then crushed it, and then for some reason, bring it back inside here." Sonic said.

"I'm sure we would've heard the robot Sonic. Eggman is not that quiet when it comes to his robots."

"Maybe he had a robot that was very silent, yet strong, so to make sure that…"

Shadow interrupted him. "Alright, no more excuses! Those were lame by the way."

"They were logical." Sonic said.

"Do you even know what that word means?!" Shadow said starting to get furious.

"Sure I do. It means that it makes sense."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Obviously you don't. Yes, it means that it makes sense, but your excuses didn't. So, why would use that word in the wrong use?"

"Alright, whatever." Sonic said finally beat. "What other possibilities could there be?"

"I don't know what could've done this. Or who." Tails said.

"Everyone!" Knuckles shouted. "You will not believe this!" He was running down the stairs. But suddenly, he tripped and was now rolling down.

_"Now I know where Sonic gets his idiocy from." _Shadow thought to himself. When Knuckles stopped rolling, the Chaos Emeralds fell out.

"The emeralds!" everyone shouted. "Where did you find them?"

"That's what I need to tell you! I found them in Sonic's room!"

"WHAT?!" Everyone shouted. They all looked at Sonic.

"I knew it!!" Shadow shouted. "I knew you would someday become evil!!"

Sonic groaned. "Shadow, did you take the emeralds and put them in my room just so you could frame me?" Sonic asked him.

Shadow scoffed. "Why would I do that?"

"True." Amy said. "But I don't believe that Sonic stole them. Someone must've framed him!"

"That may be so, but Knuckles found them in his room. Therefore, he is, right now, our thief." Static said.

"NO! I don't believe that!" Amy said.

"Amy calm down!" Sonic shouted. "This is outrageous! I would never steal the emeralds! There must be some logical explanation!"

"Well, at least we found them. That's the most important thing. But we'll have to think about this. Like Sonic said, there have been weird things that have been going on lately." Static said.

"Static's right." Tails said. "We should think this over. After all, Sonic couldn't have taken the emeralds. Sonic, you can go back to whatever you were doing while Static, Knuckles, and I think this over. Amy, you should probably go with Sonic. You too Shadow."

They nodded their heads in agreement and they headed out the door. They decided to do something in the city, and when it started to get dark, they came back to the house. When they asked if Static, Knuckles, and Tails came to a conclusion, they said no. Sonic just shrugged and headed upstairs to bed. He got into bed and fell asleep. However, he did not know that Amy was watching. She was hiding in his closet, trying to see if he would do anything. Suddenly, when the moon was shining through the window, Sonic started shivering in his sleep. Amy cringed back in the darkness, afraid. All of a sudden, she started seeing Sonic transform. She saw his hands turn into dark claws, his eyes were completely white, and his fur turned to a dark teal. His legs and his arms became a little bit longer, and his quills became a little bit jagged. Amy almost screamed, but she held it in. Sonic (now a phantom) went downstairs and grabbed the emeralds again, however, he only had six. The last one was in Amy's hand. When Amy saw that Sonic had the emeralds, she was completely shocked.

_"It was Sonic!! He did steal the emeralds!! But, it can't be!! Impossible!" _Amy thought to herself. Suddenly, she saw Sonic jump out his window.

"Where's he going?" she asked herself. "I'd better find out!" She went out the window and followed Sonic through the woods. She was having a tough time of following, but she finally came up to some sort of abandoned temple in the middle of the woods. She saw Sonic go inside, and she came up to the door, but she didn't go in. She peeked through a crack, and saw Sonic, and most surprisingly, the phantom. She gasped quietly.

"Very good, Phantom Sonic. You brought me all of the…wait a minute!" the phantom said.

"There's only six! Where's the other one?"

"Couldn't find it!" Sonic said.

"You failed me, but at least I have six out of seven! Find that last one soon, or else!"

Sonic nodded and headed off. He almost saw Amy, but headed back towards Cream's house. Again, Amy followed Sonic back to the house, where Sonic jumped back in the window and back to bed. There, he turned back to normal. Amy came in through the front door, and then headed off to bed, horrified that Sonic was the thief, and that Sonic was now a phantom.


	3. Enter the Shadows

Enter the Shadows **Okay, so now Sonic's a phantom, and he is now evil. In this chapter, a new character will appear, but I am not telling you who it is! You will have to find out for yourself! I don't want to ruin the surprise. This story might get confusing after a while, but I will try my best to make sure it is understandable. R&R! And don't forget to check out the later chapters coming soon! Hope you enjoy this chapter!** Disclaimer: all of the characters in the story all belong to SEGA except for the phantom, phantom Sonic, and Flash the Hedgehog. **-ShadowRuler55 **"They're gone! They're gone again!" Knuckles shouted as he checked the safe again.

Amy woke up and ran downstairs in her robe. Sonic followed behind her.

"What happened?" Sonic shouted.

"The emeralds are gone again!" Knuckles shouted.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked. "This is impossible!"

Amy knew what happened, but kept quiet.

"Sonic, did you take them again?" Shadow asked.

"Of course not! I don't remember taking them at all!"

"Let's check your room, maybe they're in there."

"I told you Shadow, I didn't steal them!"

Amy was tempted to speak out, but still kept quiet.

Static went upstairs and checked out the room quickly. He came back downstairs, looking disappointed.

"Well, the good news is, Sonic is not the culprit this time…"

Sonic interrupted him. "Ha! I knew it! Take that Shadow!"

Static was annoyed again. "I wasn't finished. The bad news is that we don't know where they are. They could be anywhere."

"Oh." Sonic said with a disappointed sigh.

Amy had a worried look on her face. However, Static noticed her look. "Amy, is there something wrong? You look like you're keeping a secret from us."

"A secret? Of course not! Why would I keep a secret from you guys?" Amy said as she laughed nervously.

Static looked confused. "Umm…okay. Well, if you're telling the truth, then there's nothing that you're hiding from us right?"

"NO! I mean, YES!" Amy said stuttering.

Static still looked confused. He shrugged, and walked off.

"Whew!" Amy said as everyone walked off. However, there was someone still there. He was hiding on the ceiling.

"Hmph! That was a pretty snazzy lie there! Though I don't think you're that good of a liar."

Amy jumped when she heard this. "Who's there?" she asked.

"Up here!" the mysterious voice said. Amy looked up, and she saw a red hedgehog. His eyes were red as well. His quills were in a jagged fashion. The bottom quill stretched out far, and the quills were colored red and orange. His ears looked like horns. His shoes looked very weird. A W and an R were on his chest. He even had a devilish smile.

"Who are you?" Amy asked.

"The name's Flash. Some people call me the daredevil."

"Why are you here? And how did you know that I lied?" Amy asked Flash.

"Because, I saw everything last night. But now I'm wondering why you lied to your friends, and you didn't admit that you did see Sonic give the emeralds to the phantom."

Amy sighed. "I don't know. I was so horrified that Sonic did this, that I didn't want Sonic to get in trouble."

Flash scoffed. "That doesn't give you a good enough reason to lie to your friends."

Amy was tearing up. "Why are you even here? I don't even know you! GET OUT!!" she yelled.

Flash lowered his eyes and left at the speed of light. Amy couldn't believe how fast he was.

As daylight was coming to an end, Amy was worried what would happen. She didn't know if Sonic would do something evil, or something diabolical, like hurting one of his friends. Sonic went up to bed, and Amy hid in the closet again. She wanted to see if Sonic would do the same thing again. Sure enough, during the night, Sonic turned into his phantom form again. This time, he started looking around his room. It looked like he was searching for something. Suddenly, he came to the closet, and tore it open. Amy stood in the corner, terrified. Sonic still saw her, however.

"You have the final emerald! Give it to me!" Sonic yelled.

"Sonic! It's me, Amy! Don't you know who I am?" she asked him.

But Sonic paid no attention to her question. "Since you refuse me, I have no choice but to kill you!"

Amy gasped. She was afraid that she would die. But suddenly, something caught Sonic's eye. The thing dashed right through Sonic, knocking him backwards. It was Flash.

"Flash!" Amy exclaimed.

"Amy! Get out! I'll distract him! Now go!"

Amy nodded, and ran out the window. Flash ran around Sonic in circles, but Sonic grabbed him quickly, and started choking him. Flash tried to resist, but Sonic was too strong. Finally, Sonic threw him against the wall.

Sonic then jumped through the window and chased down Amy. He jumped in front of her and grabbed her.

"So, trying to run away are we? You should be taught a lesson!" Sonic shouted. "I should send you to the shadow realm!"

"Shadow realm? What shadow realm?" Amy asked.

Sonic ignored the question again and he opened a portal. He threw her in, and Amy screamed as she was thrown in.

"Hmmmhmhm. Good riddance." Sonic said.

When Amy woke up, she saw herself in a completely empty place. The entire background was totally black.

"Where am I?" she asked herself. "Looks like I'm in a dark place."

Suddenly, she spotted a movement in the shadows. Though she couldn't see the figure itself. She looked around for it again, and then all of a sudden, it popped out of the shadows. It had red eyes, and it shrieked. Amy screamed at the sight of this. The thing laughed as it disappeared.

"I DON'T LIKE THIS PLACE!! I NEED TO FIND A WAY OUT OF HERE NOW!!" Amy screamed. She started running, wondering where to go, but she couldn't see where she was going. She kept on running, trying to avoid the scary things that popped out at her. However, it was no use. There was no way to avoid them. She kept on screaming as she was running. But then, she ran into an invisible wall.

"I wonder, could this be the way out?" she asked herself.

Suddenly, she heard someone yelling. She looked around, trying to find out where it was coming from. Then, she looked up, and saw Flash was falling.

"Flash!" Amy shouted as he hit the floor. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I suppose Sonic threw you in here as well." Flash said.

"Yeah, but do you know a way out?" she asked him.

Flash shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. I guess we're going to be stuck here for a while."

Amy sighed. "I guess so."

Meanwhile, in the real world, phantom Sonic went back to bed as the sun came up. As Sonic became normal, he noticed that Amy was not sleeping next to him.

"Amy? Amy where are you?" he asked worried. "Where could she be?"

He ran downstairs to find out she wasn't there. He had no idea that he was the one who made her disappear.

"What monster would do such a thing?" he asked out loud in agony.

Suddenly, he heard a hissing voice inside his head.

"You would." The voice said.

"What? Me? Impossible! I would never do that to Amy! I love her!!"

"Take a look for yourself." The voice said again.

Sonic had these images in his mind that he threw her in the shadow realm. Sonic was speechless.

"That…that was me! But how? I don't remember that at all!!"

The voice was hissing again. "You won't remember because you are turning into an evil monster at night. You are a danger to your friends."

"I have to get away from my friends! I don't want any other bad thing to happen to them!"

And with that, Sonic ran out the door and left, probably for good.


	4. Escape

Escape Escape

Sonic ran out of the city, and was trying to get as far as possible. He didn't want to end up hurting another one of his friends. So far, he lost Amy, and that was more than he could bear. Finally, after reaching about five miles away from the city, he stopped for a quick break. He started having second thoughts about running away however.

"Maybe I shouldn't do this. Maybe I should just start heading back."

Suddenly, the eerie voice was talking again.

"Don't turn back! You must keep going! Get as far away from your friends as possible!"

"Maybe you're right, whatever you are." Sonic said. "But then again…"

"No buts! Keep going!" the voice hissed.

Sonic agreed and kept on running, wondering what will happen to him at night.

Meanwhile, back in the shadow realm, Amy was using her hammer to try to break the invisible wall.

"It's no use Amy. You'll never break the wall." Flash said.

"Just watch me!" Amy replied.

"Whatever." Flash muttered.

Amy kept on trying, but couldn't succeed. She kept hearing the laughs in the background from the phantoms, laughing at her because of her futile efforts in escaping.

Outside of the shadow realm, everyone at Cream's house was getting worried about Sonic and Amy.

"Sonic **and **Amy are missing?" Knuckles asked.

"I'm afraid so. But I wonder where they could've gone." Static replied.

"I'm sure they are in the city." Tails said. "They do that every day."

"I don't think so. Sonic or Amy would've let us know before they went out." Static said.

"Hey guys!" Shadow yelled. "Look what I found in Sonic's room!"

Shadow had a note in his hand that Sonic wrote. Shadow began to read it out loud.

"Dear friends,

I am away because I'm the one who caused trouble around you guys. I am responsible for taking the emeralds. Worse, I am responsible for Amy's disappearance. For all I know she might be dead. I cannot live with the guilt any longer. I don't want to cause any more trouble or agony to you guys. Therefore, I am gone. I don't know why I am doing this, but I am also gone to solve this mystery. Farewell to all of you, and Shadow, if Amy is all right, please take care of her. I am counting on you to do this. This might seem unusual for me to ask this, but I know you can do it, buddy. Once again, goodbye everybody. For good.

Sonic the Hedgehog"

Shadow folded the letter back up.

"He wants me to take care of Amy? He is responsible for taking the emeralds? He possibly killed Amy? He ran away?!" Shadow yelled. "He even called me "buddy" when I told him not to!! This doesn't make sense! What the hell is going on here, dammit?!"

Static electrified him. "Watch your mouth! Just because you're furious doesn't mean you have the right to swear!!"

"Of course I do!! Sonic was extremely irresponsible and foolish to run away just because he POSSIBLY killed Amy, and caused trouble!"

"Yes he does!" Static yelled back. "If Amy was your wife, and you killed her, would you run away too because you couldn't live with the guilt?"

"NO! I would simply kill myself!" Shadow replied.

Everyone gasped.

"Kill yourself?!" Static shouted. "That is a foolish thing to do!! Those kind of people are messed up!"

Shadow punched him. "I am not messed up!! I get revenge on people who harm anyone I love. Because I killed Amy, I would kill myself!"

"Oh sure Shadow!! Killing yourself **really** frees you from guilt doesn't it?! You don't even know what you're talking about!!"

Shadow stood still for a moment and sneered. "Say what you want, but I'm outta' here!!"

"Where are **you** going?" Static asked.

"To find Sonic. I am going to find him, bring him back here, and to end this madness once and for all."

"WHAT? You can't do that on your own!!" Static yelled.

"Just watch me!!" Shadow yelled back as he ran out the door.

Everyone stood there frozen, shocked at Shadow's response. They didn't even bother following him. No, they didn't because they actually believed Shadow's words. If he said he could do it on his own, then he could do it.

In the Shadow realm, Amy was still trying to break down the wall. Suddenly, she started feeling faint.

"Amy, what's wrong?" Flash asked her.

"I don't know." Amy responded. "I feel like I'm about to faint all of a sudden."

She started closing her eyes, even though she tried to keep them open. She dropped her hammer, and started fainting.

"Amy!" Flash yelled. "Hold on! I'll get you outta' here!"

Suddenly, he heard hissing voices. "I'm afraid we can't let you do that Flash. We have strict orders from the boss that we shall prevent you or that girl from escaping."

Flash looked around and saw different phantoms. "That's what you think!"

They started attacking him, but he was too fast for them. He tried to attack them even with Amy in his arms. Then, he started thinking that he would lead the phantoms to the wall. He planned for them to attack the wall, and then after a while, the wall would break. So that is what he did. As he planned, the plan worked. They were attacking him, but he kept on dodging, and their attacks were hitting the wall instead. Finally, after a while, the wall finally broke.

"Finally! Now I can get out of this crazy place, and in hopes that Amy is still alive!"

But it didn't plan out the way he wanted it to. Not only he escaped, but many different phantoms escaped as well, into our world.

"Haha! Thanks for the escape!!" the lead phantom said to him.

"Oh crap." Flash said disappointed. He came up to a portal, and he jumped into it. He reappeared back to earth. At that moment, Amy woke up.

"What happened?" Amy asked.

"Never mind that." Flash said. "What's important is that we escaped from the shadow realm."

"We did? That's good. Anything else happen?"

Flash did not want to admit that he did something bad in the process. "Nope, nothing else. Let's head back to the house."

"That sounds good. I can't wait to see Sonic's face again!"

Flash nodded and ran back to the house, not telling Amy of the phantoms.


	5. The History of Phantoms

The History of Phantoms

The History of Phantoms

Sonic was miles and miles away from the city. However, he was entering another city. When he entered it, people were staring at him. They did not know who he was, and thought he was unusual. They were giving him weird faces.

"Hey, haven't you seen a hedgehog before?" Sonic asked them.

They shrieked and cringed when he talked. They started getting frightened. Some people started calling animal control to stop Sonic. Within minutes, animal control arrived. They too were shocked at Sonic. He turned around to see that the animal control was shooting darts at him to slow him down. However, with his speed, he dodged them all.

"I would take that as a no." Sonic said to himself.

He kept dodging the darts, and finally, he decided to get out of the city if he wasn't welcomed there. He escaped, and kept running away from there. It was almost twilight, and Sonic was being cautious of what would happen to him when nighttime began.

Back in the city, all was calm, and all was quiet. Until things started becoming tragic. The phantoms that escaped from the shadow realm entered the city and started wrecking havoc. The leader of the group of phantoms was named Phantom Nazo. He looked exactly like Nazo, except he was a dark teal and silver, and he had dark eyes.

"Time to take back this world! This world belongs to us phantoms!" Phantom Nazo said.

Sonic realized that the city was in danger, but did not bother to help. Unlike him, he didn't help because since they didn't appreciate him, why should he help? Though, he wanted to help them, but he didn't. Suddenly, the sun started setting low. Sonic was scared of what would happen. He started feeling this weird sensation in his body. He fell to the floor and started shivering and shaking, like he was having a seizure. He started transforming into his phantom form. He roared as he completed his transformation and headed towards the city. None of the other phantoms knew that sonic would come to the rescue. The phantoms were wrecking havoc, until they heard Sonic roar.

"Keep your guard up." Phantom Nazo said to his troops. "We've got company."

Then, out of the shadows, Sonic sprang out and started attacking the phantoms. Unlike the other phantoms, Sonic was stronger and faster than the others. So defeating the phantoms was no match. However, Phantom Nazo was pretty tough. This was actually a challenge for Sonic. But Sonic used his full strength and finally defeated him. Sonic killed off at least ninety percent of the phantoms. Before anyone could thank Sonic, he ran out of the city. This time, Sonic had more control of his phantom form. This way, he could remember what he did even when he was a phantom.

"Whoa! Did I just do that? What am I? How did this happen? What have I become?" Sonic said to himself puzzled.

Meanwhile, Shadow just arrived in the nearly destroyed city.

"What happened here?!" he yelled.

Unbeknownst to him, the surviving phantoms were about to ambush him. They crept from behind him and attacked him. One of the survivors was Phantom Nazo. He went flying into a car, and got furious. He then started attacking the phantoms, and they were no match because they were weakened by Sonic. Shadow was mainly focusing on Phantom Nazo because he wanted to hold him hostage. When he finally got the chance to grab him, he yelled to the other phantoms:

"I got your leader! If you even dare to attack me, I will kill you leader!"

The other phantoms understood and backed away. Shadow pinned Phantom Nazo to the ground.

"Alright, start talking! What are you doing here?"

"We were simply released, and we've come to take over this planet. That is, until Sonic came around."

"Sonic was here?" Shadow asked. "Why was he here?"

Phantom Nazo started talking again. "To stop us of course! Although, he was a phantom instead."

"A phantom? So that's why he stole the emeralds and made Amy disappear! I have to find him! Where did he go?"

Phantom Nazo paused.

"WHERE DID HE GO?!" Shadow repeated, only angrier.

"He headed just north of here. He only left five minutes ago, so you should be able to catch up with him."

"Thanks." Shadow said. He threw him at a car and headed off.

Phantom Nazo recovered and started talking to the Phantom.

"Master, Shadow is headed your way. He should be there any second now."

The Phantom laughed. "Well done Phantom Nazo. I see him right now."

Shadow was running towards the Phantom, but didn't see him because he was invisible. Shadow ran into an invisible barrier. He tried to run back, but also ran into another barrier. He was caged all around. The Phantom appeared behind him.

"Hello, Shadow." He said grimly.

"You!" Shadow yelled. "This is a trap!"

The Phantom knocked out Shadow quickly, and Shadow fainted.

When he woke up, he was in a dark cell. He looked around, and outside of the cell were the Phantom, Phantom Nazo, other phantoms, and surprisingly, Sonic in his phantom form.

"Sonic!! What are you doing siding with them?!" Shadow yelled.

"He is siding with us because he is one of us now!" the Phantom said.

"That's not true! I know Sonic is still alive inside of him!" Shadow said.

"Well, Sonic is not fully a phantom yet. He still transforms into a phantom at night, but soon, he will fully become a phantom, both day and night, and he will no longer become Sonic!"

"Just what are you phantoms?!" Shadow asked them.

The Phantom chuckled. "We are the Phantom Elect! The most frightening and scariest thing on Earth!"

"The Phantom what?"

"You heard me hedgehog! The Phantom Elect! We have been alive for more than 3000 years!"

"What is this "Phantom Elect" you talk about?" Shadow asked again.

The Phantom cleared his throat. "Three thousand years ago, we phantoms lived underground in deep ruins. We were actually spirits, for a time. That is, until our hearts were filled with evil, greed, and darkness. We then became phantoms, and we organized a group of phantoms, hence the name the Phantom Elect. We finally came up to Earth's surface and started wrecking havoc. We almost succeeded, until the guardians of the Chaos emeralds, and Master Emerald stopped us. The light and kindness from the emeralds made us weak, and useless. We were sent to the shadow realm, and we were stuck there. However, there are only two of us that escaped. Me, and a phantom hedgehog named Flash. However, Flash didn't want to be a phantom anymore, and didn't want to spread evil around the world. He returned to normal, and was banned from the elect. But I knew someday he would be the one releasing our troops."

"What is this shadow realm?" Shadow asked.

"The shadow realm was our "dungeon" after we were defeated. If any mortal enters the realm, they will slowly die due to the phantom gas that surrounds the realm."

"What's going to happen to Sonic?" Shadow asked once more.

"Ah Sonic. We almost forgot about him." The Phantom said. "Sonic is now becoming a phantom at night, but as I said before, he will fully become a phantom, and he will become the new leader of our elect! We only need one more Chaos Emerald, and we can take over this pathetic planet!"

All the phantoms laughed after this. Shadow was now captured, Sonic's a phantom, and nobody at home knows he is one, except Amy and Flash. Things have gotten a lot worse.

**I would like to thank my best friend CrazyNutSquirrel. Without her help, I wouldn't have finished this chapter. I ran out of ideas, but she gave me new ideas, which helped me finish the chapter. Check out CrazyNutSquirrel! Her stories are awesome! Also, find out what will happen next in chapter 6! Coming soon!**


	6. Amy the Fugitave

Amy the Fugitive

Amy the Fugitive

Shadow was sitting down in his jail cell, when he couldn't help but wonder where he was in the first place.

"Where am I?" he asked the phantom, demanding to know.

"You are in another dimension. In fact, you are in the Shadow Steeple."

"Shadow Steeple?" Shadow asked himself. "You mean the one where Sonic had to find the purple emerald?"

The phantom chuckled. "Exactly. You're going to be here a while Shadow, so I would saver your life while you have the chance." He sent Sonic over to him. "Sonic, guard Shadow, and at all costs, DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE! Amy escaped from the shadow realm, and she had the last emerald! We can't afford to let him escape too!"

The phantom paused for a moment. "Speaking of Amy, send a search party for her. She has the emerald that we need, and we need it as soon as possible."

"Already did." Sonic said with a smirk. "Sent them about ten minutes ago. They should be finding Amy soon."

An evil smile went across the phantom's face. "Well done being prepared. But I need to be in charge of the search party. I'm going to go with them, and guard Shadow 24/7! I'm counting on you to do so!"

Sonic nodded, and the phantom left. "Don't try anything funny!" Sonic yelled to Shadow. "Or there will be dire consequences!"

Shadow hung his head low. "Listen Sonic! You need to come to your senses!"

"That Sonic is dead Shadow. I am a phantom now!"

"No you're not! You're not fully a phantom yet! I know that Sonic is still inside of you!"

Sonic just sneered at him and ignored him.

_"I got to find some way to make Sonic come to his senses. But how? Maybe if I try jogging his memory a little bit, he might have control over his phantom form." _Shadow thought to himself.

"Hey Sonic! You remember that one time we fought Cinerate side by side together?" Shadow asked him.

Suddenly, Sonic was remembering everything. He was changing back and forth between his regular form and his phantom form. "Shut up!" he yelled to Shadow.

Shadow ignored him, knowing it was working. "Yeah, and remember when Amy proposed to you while you were fighting him in his ultimate form?"

This started getting on Sonic's nerves. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!!" He yelled. He was holding head and fell to his knees, trying to fight against Sonic. He kept on changing back and forth.

"Remember when you married Amy, and that you were glad you were with her, and you saved her from the freezing waters in the Ice Palace?"

Sonic looked like he was in deep pain, because he was now clenching his head, lying on the ground, changing back and forth, though he still maintained his phantom form.

Shadow had to finish it off here. He knew that Sonic's phantom form could take no more.

"Remember when you first met me on Paradise Island, and I kept on punching you? Remember that, 'buddy?'"

Buddy. That was the magic word. That was the word that did the trick. Sonic yelled in agony and pain, and no sooner, Sonic returned to normal.

"It worked!" Shadow exclaimed.

"Ugh." Sonic groaned. "Where am I? And how did you get in there Shadow? Most importantly, why are you here?"

"I came looking for you. I need to get you back to Cream's house, and we'll talk."

"You came looking for me? Thanks buddy!" Sonic said.

Shadow punched him in the face hard. "I thought I told you never call me buddy! Just because I did, doesn't mean you can. Besides, I wasn't serious! I just needed for you to return to normal."

"Thought that too." Sonic said weakly.

"Listen, I came all the way here to take you back home. You need to come with me." Shadow said.

Sonic paused for a moment. "Leave without me."

"WHAT? Are you crazy?" Shadow yelled. "I can't leave without you that was the point of me coming here! Are you an idiot?"

"I appreciate you coming to save me Shadow, but it won't work that way. I need to be as far as possible from everybody to make sure that I won't cause any more trouble to them. Besides, you need to take care of Amy, as promised." Sonic said.

"As promised?!" Shadow yelled. "I never promised anything! This is really your fault in the first place you know! One day you go to bed, and then the next morning, you leave us without telling us the situation! You got me into this mess, and now your going to fix it!"

Sonic closed his eyes. "Sorry Shadow. There's no way I can fix your problem now. I am turning into a phantom, and I can't control myself. But I need to make sure my friends are all right. It's all up to you Shadow. Now, it's your turn to take charge. Remember, keep Amy safe."

Shadow sneered at Sonic because he wasn't keeping responsibility. "Fine. If that's what you choose. But I'm not coming back to save you next time."

Shadow ran out of the steeple and used Chaos Control to get out of the dimension. Immediately when Shadow left, Sonic turned back into a phantom.

Shadow felt sorry for what he had done, but couldn't turn back. Amy was in danger; the phantoms were after her, and too much was at stake.

Meanwhile at Cream's house, everything seemed normal. Everyone was waiting for Shadow to return. Suddenly, he burst through the door. Static looked furious.

"SHADOW!! YOU BETTER HAVE A GOOD EXPLANATION OF WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG!!" he yelled.

But Shadow was panting and ignored his demand. "We have to go now!" Shadow yelled.

"Why?" Amy asked.

"Look out the window and see." Shadow said.

Immediately, everyone looked out the window, and saw that the sky grew dark, and that phantoms were flying everywhere from all different directions, surrounding the house.

"Why are they here?" Knuckles asked.

"They want Amy, because she has the final emerald. Which is why we need to go now!" Shadow yelled, trying to rush everybody out.

"Not me! I'm not going down without a fight!" Knuckles said confident.

"He's right." Tails said. "We'll guard the house, while you and Amy escape."

"But then you might perish in the ruins in the house!" Amy said.

Knuckles chuckled. "Who said we're losing?!"

Shadow nodded. "C'mon Amy, let's go! Good luck guys!" He grabbed Amy's arm, and fled through the basement window. The phantoms started breaking through the windows and doors. They started smashing everything in their sight. Everyone tried their best to resist the phantoms, but since they were supernatural, they didn't stand a chance. If only they had the emeralds.

The Phantom leader walked in. He looked around at all the damage. The phantoms searched the house to find Amy.

"Find her!" the Phantom shouted. One of them came back, hardly breathing.

"Report." The Phantom said.

The phantom caught his breath. "Sir, although we have resisted the other friends, it appears Amy is not with them. She's gone!"

The Phantom smashed a table in rage. "THEN YOU FIND HER!! SHE HAS THE LAST EMERALD, AND SHE'LL GET AWAY WITH IT IF WE DON'T DO ANYTHING!! FIND HER, GET THE EMERALD, AND KILL HER!!" he shouted, extremely enraged.

The other phantom winced. "But sir, what do we do with her friends?" he asked.

The Phantom turned around. "What we always do to those lower class than us. Take them as prisoners."

The other phantoms nodded and grabbed everyone in the rubble. Well, at least they thought they had everyone. There was one "person" that was still in the rubble: Cheese. Cheese woke up and saw everyone was taken prisoner. He hid back in the rubble so he wouldn't get caught. He saw Cream and he started crying. He decided to go find Amy and Shadow and tell them about everyone was taken prisoner. Well, not really talk, because the only thing he could say was "chao." But at least show them where everyone was.

Meanwhile, Amy and Shadow ran for their lives, with Shadow carrying Amy, so really, Shadow was the one running for his life.

"You know, you could get off my back and run yourself." Shadow said to Amy complaining.

"C'mon. I can't even run as fast as you. Besides, by doing this, you're being a kind gentleman."

Shadow groaned. "But I don't want to be a gentleman. I am Shadow the Hedgehog. I shoot guns, I destroy things, I have an attitude, and more importantly, I am awesome! More awesome than Sonic is."

"I wouldn't say that." Amy replied.

"Well of course you wouldn't! You're married to him!"

"True, but still, you want a girlfriend right? So if you be a gentleman, girls will like you, but if you're not, girls will think you're a hopeless loser."

Shadow had a confused look on his face and started thinking. "Okay, how did we get into this conversation?" he asked.

Amy started thinking too. "I don't know."

"Well, can we at least stop? My legs are killing me." Shadow asked.

"Stop now? No way! Phantoms are chasing us as we speak, and they could be right on our tail!" Amy said.

"Relax. We've been running for about twenty minutes at high speeds. But let me rephrase that. **I've **been running for about twenty minutes at high speeds. There's no way they can catch up now. Besides, I need to take a break."

Amy sighed. "Alright then, let's stop here."

They ran up to a tree and got a good glimpse at the city that was far out in front of them. It was almost twilight, and Amy was worried about Sonic every second. She wondered if he was all right, what would happen to him, and if he'll ever come back. Shadow took Amy off his back and put her down gently beside the tree. He sat down next to her and groaned.

"Oh, don't be such a baby. It was only twenty minutes." She said.

"You try running around for twenty minutes, carrying…" Shadow paused, trying to figure out how much she weighed. "How much do you weigh?" he asked.

Big mistake. Never ask girls how much they weigh, or else they'll think that you think she's fat. In this case, Amy slapped him in the face.

"For your information, I only weigh eighty pounds! That's perfectly normal for a twelve year old! No wonder why you don't have any girlfriends!"

Shadow rubbed the spot where she slapped him. "So touchy." He said. "You do remember I did save your life from the phantoms, right?"

"True." She said. "Shadow, do you have feelings for me?" she asked.

Shadow looked confused. "Feelings like how? Like a friend, or a boyfriend and girlfriend kind of thing? And why do you ask?"

"Boyfriend and girlfriend. And I ask because you've been awfully nice to me, except when you asked me how much I weigh."

"Well, you're a good friend, and you kind of remind me of Maria, but I don't think I do, but I do have feelings for you as a friend." Shadow replied.

Amy smirked. "You like me don't you? I can tell. You're not giving a positive answer and I see you blushing right now. In fact, you're sweating a little bit."

Indeed, Shadow was blushing, and he was sweating. But he didn't want to admit it.

"You don't have to reply Shadow. You can't hide it from me. Why didn't you tell me?" she asked.

"Well, I was planning on telling you soon, but since you married Sonic, I figured, well, it's too late to tell you. You're with Sonic, and that's the way it worked out." Shadow replied.

"It wouldn't make a difference Shadow. Just because I'm married to Sonic, doesn't mean Sonic would kill you because he would think you're trying to steal me from him. He would understand, believe me, he's very understanding and slow to anger."

"Hmm. I see. Well, it's getting dark. I suppose we should start going to bed now. But let's sleep in the tree. We'll be more concealed up there." Shadow replied.

"Alright then, but you'll have to carry me up there." Amy said with a smirk.

"Fine, but I'm only doing this just because I have feelings for you." Shadow said.

"I understand." Amy replied. And so Shadow carried Amy up the tree and laid her on a ranch to sleep on. They knew that they couldn't stay here long, because they knew that they are being hunted. They were now living as fugitives.

**FINALLY!! I got a new chapter posted!! Sorry that I haven't updated in a while. School's a real pain with homework, studying for tests, reports, random homework crap, AARRGGHH!! Plus, as you heard from your favorite authoress on fanfic, CrazyNutSquirrel, yes, I have been helping her out with her chapters for Demon Dance (which I love!), and yes, as such, I keep getting the previews for her chapter before it is posted on FanFic. So, I have doing a lot of stuff lately, but I want to thank you all for being so patient! I really appreciate that. **

**So now Shadow has feelings for Amy. The cat is finally out of the bag!! Why I decided to do this, I don't know. That's how my crazy mind works. But keep reading and reviewing! I HOPE to post a new chapter soon.**

**ShadowRuler55. Or as CrazyNutSquirrel would call me- ShadR.**


	7. Rescue Party

Rescue Party

The next morning, Amy woke up, surprisingly in Shadow's arms. She did not know why, nor did she want to know. All she knew was that phantoms were after them, and that they had to be moving. She nudged Shadow once, then twice. Finally, he woke up.

"Uhh…" he said tired. "Why the early wake-up call?"

"Shadow, you do realize we do have to be on our way now right? We can't stay here forever. These phantoms are bound to find us soon." Amy persisted.

Shadow grunted. "Oh fine. But I'm not carrying you this time. You're running!"

"All right, fine." Amy responded. Shadow carried her down from the tree and they both fled into the city. Amy was awed at the amazing stores and buildings. There was one store that really caught her eye.

She gasped. "Shadow look!" She grabbed his arm and pointed to an Aeropostle store. "Look at all the clothes in there! They look so good! I would like to try them on!" Her eyes were bulging by now. "Just think of what Sonic would think of me if I wear those type of clothes!" She was talking to herself by now. Shadow was tuning her out and was not listening at all. Suddenly, Amy started running towards the store, but Shadow quickly caught the collar of her shirt.

"We can't stop now. If the phantoms find us here, they won't hesitate on killing everyone else and destroying the city. We can't endanger them like that. We must go."

Amy sighed but nodded in agreement. As they were walking away, Amt started asking Shadow questions like: "C'mon, only ten minutes of browsing?" or "Please? I won't take long." To each question, Shadow replied: "No."

They kept on running, until they reached the ocean. They saw an island above the ocean.

"Is that…" Amy began. "Angel Island?"

"I believe it is." Shadow replied.

"Well, do you think we'll be safe up there? I don't think the phantoms could track us up there." Amy asked.

Shadow thought for a moment. "Couldn't hurt. Maybe you're right. They might be unable to track us down there. Question is how do we get up there? I can't use Chaos Control to warp us up there. I need at least one Chaos Emerald to increase my distances. But we don't have any Chaos Emeralds."

Amy smirked. "That's where you're wrong." She pulled out the purple Chaos Emerald.

Shadow's eyes nearly widened. "How'd you get that? I thought we lost all the emeralds!"

"I grabbed it before Sonic could get his hands on it." Amy paused for a moment, and then closed her eyes. "Speaking of him, I wonder how he's doing." She then let out a worried sigh.

Shadow put his hand on her shoulder and took the emerald. "He's fine. Let me assure you. Now, let's get on Angel Island." He raised the emerald over his head. "Chaos Control!" he yelled. They disappeared, and then reappeared on the island.

"Hmm. Looks peaceful." Amy said. "I wonder if there's anyone on this island."

"Well, if it's floating, I suppose there's got to be SOMEBODY on this island. Or, it's floating because the Master Emerald is here. Whatever the reason, we better watch our backs. If there are inhabitants on this island, they might think we're trespassers. And if the Master Emerald's here, they might think we're trespassers, trying to steal the emerald." Shadow said.

"Yeah, that's true. But then again, they might be friendly, and might not attack us." Amy said.

Shadow looked around. "Well for now, let's just find a place to stay."

Amy nodded and they ran off on the island. They were looking for a place to stay, but it seemed to be empty.

"Hmm. Maybe there isn't anybody on this island after all." Shadow said.

Suddenly, something caught Amy's eye. "Shadow look!" she shouted. She pointed to a shrine of some sort. In the middle was the Master Emerald.

"The Master Emerald! So it is here. But obviously, Knuckles isn't here to guard it. Not that he ever does though. All he does is sleep by it. If that is what he calls 'guarding it', then he doesn't know what the word means." Shadow said. They both ran over to the emerald, looking at it with awe. It was shining ever so brightly.

"You think this is what keeps the island afloat?" Amy asked Shadow.

"Yeah, I have a feeling it does. But again, we need to be careful. We don't want anybody to think we're thieves."

Suddenly, someone spotted Amy and Shadow by the emerald. He yelled out "Thieves!" But then, he ran away.

Shadow and Amy looked confused. "Why did he call us thieves and suddenly run away? Wouldn't he attack us immediately?" Amy asked.

Shadow paused. "I don't know, but I have a feeling this can't be good. He already accused us of being thieves; that's not good. He might be telling the village people about this. They might be getting ready to attack us."

No sooner, Shadow heard yelling from afar. He also saw an ominous glow in the distance. It was all adding up. Angry people were yelling. They lit torches. There was an angry mob to kill Shadow and Amy. Amy started getting worried. The mob was getting closer. But now it was more than a mob: it was an _army_ of angry people. The village people in front were the soldiers and leaders of the village. They carried spears, arrows, and torches.

"Shadow, they're going to kill us! What do we do?"

"Only one thing to do: get the heck out of here!" he yelled. "C'mon!" She grabbed his hand and they ran for dear life. The army shot out the arrows and spears. However, Shadow and Amy were too fast for them. Still, the army showed determination and confidence. They kept on shooting, no matter if they kept on missing.

Shadow was breathing heavily. "These guys never give up!" Suddenly, he was shot in the arm. Amy gasped.

"I'm fine Amy. Just keep on running! Go without me!"

She kept on running from the army of people, until they shot arrows on fire. The arrows landed in front of Amy, causing a ring of fire. Alas, she could advance no further. She was almost killed, but she immediately surrendered. They tied up her hands in ropes, and put a stitched bag over her head. They did the same with Shadow.

The village people decided to hold a village meeting on what to do with Shadow and Amy. They met near a crumbled shrine with seats made of stone. The leader of the village was named Granite. He calmed down the people yelling.

"Bring forward the criminals." He ordered the guards. The guards had Shadow and Amy in their tight grasp. Both of them had bags on their heads. The guards forced Shadow and Amy on their knees and removed the bags.

"Did you intentionally try to steal the Master Emerald?" Granite asked Shadow.

"No!" Shadow immediately replied. "This is a mistake!"

"LIES! LIES!" The crowd jeered. One of the people in the audience had a black mask over his face, a dark hat, and a black cape as well. He wore dark clothes, and looked very stern. He was the sage of this village. His job was to make sure the island was safe if the leader was injured. He also preformed spells to help people out. Right now, he felt that Shadow and Amy were guilty. But he was not sure.

"The people have spoken. We even have a witness to prove it. He saw you two by the emerald! You can't deny that, can you?" Granite said sternly to Shadow and Amy.

They lowered their heads. "No, we can't." they both replied.

"Before I sentence you, who are you two, and where are you from?"

"Well, my name is Shadow the Hedgehog, and this is Amy. We come from a city called Mobius. We are friends of Knuckles the Echidna and…"

Everyone gasped. "You two know Knuckles the Echidna? The guardian of the Master Emerald? Hmmm…" Granite thought for a moment. "Surely then you two couldn't be stealing the Master Emerald! Well then, I believe I should set you two…"

The sage interrupted him. "Just a minute Granite. Should you believe them? We don't know even know who they are. They could be lying. Should we believe two random strangers? If they really are criminals and you set them free, then they will go after the Master Emerald again, but this time, they will succeed, because we trusted two strangers. Should that be the case? NO! I say that they are guilty!"

Shadow sneered at him, knowing that this sage was against him. "I give you my word Granite. I am a friend of Knuckles." Shadow said.

"He lies again! See how we're believing a liar?"

"He's not a liar!" Amy shouted. The whole crowd started yelling and arguing after this. However, Granite had an enormously loud voice. He could produce such a loud voice. So, he silenced the crowd.

"Enough of this! After thought, I need more time to think. But the court is not dismissed. Everyone shall wait here. Except for the sage and Shadow. I shall talk with them alone."

Shadow looked at Amy, but the sage pushed him towards Granite. They walked behind the ruined shrine into a tent.

After about an hour of waiting, everyone saw Granite, the sage, and Shadow come out of the tent. Amy was worried. Finally, Granite spoke up:

"After much discussion between the three of us, we have decided…that Amy is free to go. The sage had agreed to do this, and so did Shadow."

A lot of people cheered because most of them thought that they were innocent after Shadow said that they were friends of Knuckles. Amy smiled and cheered too, but after she looked at Shadow, her smile disappeared. She noticed that Shadow was not smiling, and that he was still tied up. He looked back at her sadly, and turned back around with Granite.

Amy wondered where Shadow was, because he was gone for hours. She became worried again, but suddenly, the sage popped up behind her.

"Ms. Amy Rose. I see you are distressed."

"What do you want? You tried to convict us in the first place!" Amy said angry.

"Odd isn't it? But you see, I now think you're innocent. May I have a word with you?" he asked politely.

"Go ahead." Amy replied.

"You see, you may have noticed that Granite specifically said that you were free…"

Amy interrupted him. "Where is Shadow? You should know, you were there, talking to Shadow and Granite!"

"I was just about to get into that. He didn't mention Shadow."

Amy became worried. "You mean that Shadow is in jail for life?"

The sage lowered his head. "Worse, I'm afraid. In the tent, Shadow said that Granite should let both him and you free. However, I still argued that you two were strangers, and that we shouldn't trust you. Granite agreed, and so he couldn't let you free. But Shadow made a daring agreement: he said that if Granite couldn't release both of you, he pleaded for Granite to at least release you, but not him. Granite said that if he were to let you go, since he didn't trust you, Shadow would have to pay a dire price. After that, we all agreed on the agreement."

Amy was now really worried. "What price are you talking about that Shadow would have to pay?"

"The price that Shadow would have to pay is…death. By beheading." the sage said grimly.

Amy gasped. She was about to cry.

"Such bravery and courage though. He sacrificed his life to set you free. Doesn't that show a sign that he has deep feelings for you?"

"It does." Amy was crying between words.

"The beheading is tomorrow morning at 6:30 AM." The sage said.

Amy nodded as she ran away sobbing. Shadow the Hedgehog was condemned to death.

Early the next morning, a few minutes before Shadow's beheading, everyone was there looking sorrowfully, especially Amy. There was a wooden object where they would lock Shadow's head in place. Next to it was an axe. Suddenly, everyone heard drums beating. They saw Shadow, a masked guard, and Granite appear over the hill. Shadow gave a quick glance at Amy, when suddenly Amy came up to Shadow, weeping. She was extremely worried about him, but he said it would be all right. But then, the masked guard pushed them apart. He pushed and shoved Shadow along the way, making Shadow tripping a lot. The guard only yelled louder to get moving.

Finally, Shadow reached the wooden lock. They took Shadow's head and locked it in place. Granite picked up the axe confidently, yet heartrendingly. He did not want to do this. In fact, he _did_ believe Shadow was innocent. But if he let him go along with Amy, he would be mocked and treated shamefully by the people who thought they were criminals. This would give him a bad name. Besides, Shadow agreed to do this. Granite raised the axe, and then suddenly, he swung downwards so strong that it sounded like a huge thunderclap. Everyone closed their eyes, not watching what happened. But no one expected this to happen: he missed. But he really didn't miss; the axe was just about a centimeter above Shadow's head. Granite did not stop it; it was stopped by something else. The axe was glowing white. Some sort of phycic power was stopping it.

There was quiet murmur in the crowd. No one knew what was going on. Why was the axe being stopped? Who is doing this? No one knew who it was, until the person stepped forward. This person was the most unexpected person to appear: Silver the Hedgehog.

"Silver!" Amy exclaimed. "Why are you here? More importantly, how did you get here? You're supposed to be in the future!"

"Hello Amy. It's been a while." He said. He looked over at Granite. "I want you to stop this execution! This hedgehog _is _innocent! He is a friend of mine."

Granite looked confused. "You're from the future? He is you're friend? He's innocent?" Granite asked, although he did know Shadow was innocent. "Release him then. He is no criminal."

The masked guard sneered. "Release him? Why should I? He agreed to be executed, and so did you!"

Granite frowned. "Agreement revoked."

"Yeah, well I don't agree with you! This is an execution, and I'm going to make sure this thieve is executed!" He quickly picked up the axe and swung down at Shadow's neck. However, Amy took out her hammer and placed it over Shadow's neck, stopping the axe. Amy then pushed her hammer upwards, causing the axe to fly upwards too. The guard then swung straight down at her, but she jumped above it. Then she grabbed the black mask and pulled it off of the guard's head. His identity was revealed: it was phantom Sonic.

Amy was horrified. "SONIC! It's you! You gotta' snap out of it!"

Everyone was freaking out too. There was confusion and havoc among them. Granite ordered his soldiers to stop Sonic.

Sonic ignored Amy and knocked her down. He also maimed her really bad. Fortunately though, Granite's soldiers prevented him from doing any more damage. Silver freed Shadow, and he started to attack Sonic, along with Silver. Finally, Sonic escaped from Angel Island. Now, the phantoms knew where Shadow and Amy were hiding.

Shadow ran to Amy, who was nearly cataleptic.

"AMY!" he shouted to her. Still, she didn't respond. "Granite! We need to take care of her! Take care of her and make sure she isn't dead!"

"Agreed! You heard him men! Take Amy to the nearest rest home! Failure is not an alternative!"

The soldiers nodded and picked up Amy and carried to a medicine home.

Later that day, Shadow and Silver were in Granite's house with him. They were waiting for Amy to come back. While they were waiting, Silver explained how he got here and why he is here.

"So let me get this straight: you came here because you were told by somebody that there was grave danger in the present? And you were able to get here by using Chaos Control?" Shadow asked.

"Yes, that's correct." Silver concluded. "I'd figure that the grave danger had to do with you guys."

"Why would you think that so suddenly?" Shadow asked.

"Well, you guys are…how should I put this…danger prone? Or in other words: you're capable of being in danger." Silver said.

"That's true." Shadow responded. "Hey, speaking of danger, do you know when Amy will be back Granite?"

Granite gave a look like he had good news. "We saved Amy from being in a coma. She should be back any minute now."

And just like that, Amy walked in, with band-aids on her face and a cast on her right arm.

"Amy, are you all right?" Shadow asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Amy replied. "I'm just worried, that's all."

"About what?"

"Well, about Sonic. If he would attack me, then he must be giving in to his phantom side. We have to make sure that he doesn't give in!"

"Well, right now, we can't do anything about it. We just need to think about what's our next move."

"After all," Silver began. "He already knows where we're hiding."

"Don't worry men!" Granite said. "My men will guard this island! They'll ward off those phantoms!"

"It's not that simple Granite. These phantoms that we're in war with are extremely tough. I'm afraid your men won't be strong enough." Shadow said.

"Well then how the heck are we supposed to fight these phantoms? We don't know any strong beings to fight these monsters!" Amy said.

Silver started thinking. "Unless…"

"Unless what?" Shadow asked.

"Unless we go back to the future!"

"How's that going to help?" asked Shadow. "This'll just leave our friends vulnerable to torment."

"What do you mean?" Silver asked.

"I'm saying that if we go back to the future, there will be no one to save our friends. We'll be gone, and they will realize that no one's coming to save our friends. Not only will that happen, but also we'll waste time. Sonic's already having trouble controlling his phantom side, and with no one there, he'll just keep giving in all the time, and sooner or later, it'll be too late, and he'll be a phantom."

"Good point." Amy said.

"What we need to do is save them first, then we can go back to the future."

"That's true," Granite said. "But we still have a problem: Sonic will still be in the present, and then we'll waste time."

Amy thought for a moment. "But not if we can lure him in the future along with us!"

"Hmm. You know what, that might not be a bad plan. In fact, it's perfect!" Silver exclaimed. "Here's how it goes: Step 1: we save everyone from the phantoms. Step 2: we go in the future. Step 3: we have to make sure that Sonic comes with us. We'll be in the future with him, we will be in the future, and since the phantoms need his help most of the time, they won't be able to carry out their plans!"

"Still one question remains," Granite said. "How will going into the future solve our problems, and that we'll be able to recruit strong members to fight against the phantoms?"

"Well, you know how I have superpowers, and I'm from the future? Well, I know a lot of people in the future who have superpowers just like me. All we have to do is find them!"

"Will they agree in the fact of leaving their world and coming to the present?" Amy asked.

"Oh I'm sure! Since I told everybody of how Sonic saved my world, they'll do anything to repay the favor."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Granite asked. "Let's go find Shadow and Amy's friends and head to the future! We have to recruit an army of super powered hedgehogs!"

And with that, everyone left Angel Island and set out to save everyone from the clutches of the phantoms.


	8. Back to the Future

Back to the Future

It was a while until Shadow, Amy, Silver, and Granite returned to Cream's charred house.

"It looks like the phantoms didn't hesitate to tear down the house as well." Amy said sadly.

"I just hope there's still enough time to save everyone else." Silver said.

"I'm sure they're fine." Shadow said.

"How would you know that?" Silver asked in astonishment.

"Please, I know my friends better than you do. They always have a tendency to survive. Then, they always get into trouble again, and so on."

"Whatever you think." Silver said. "Problem is, where are the phantoms hiding?"

Suddenly, everyone heard some squeaking in the distance. Amy listened close.

"That sounds like Cheese!" she exclaimed.

"Who?" Granite asked.

"Cheese, he's Cream's chao." Amy explained.

"Did I just hear that correctly? A chao?" Granite asked.

"Yeah, a chao. Why?" Amy asked.

Then, Cheese popped up in front of everybody.

"Because I had never seen a chao in such a long time, oh, say about, fifty years! In fact, our entire village has never seen a chao in such a long time! This chao looks so amazing!"

"Hey, do you think Cheese might know where everyone is?" Amy asked.

"Save it, it'll be weird for me to take orders from a little cheesy chao!" Shadow snapped.

Cheese then head bonked into Shadow in the stomach. Shadow grunted loudly.

"You deserved it!" Amy shouted. "Don't talk to Cheese that way!"

Shadow looked to Silver for backup.

"Sorry Shad, I'm going to have to go with Amy for this one."

Shadow frowned. "You always take her side!"

"Because she's right most of the time!" Silver snapped back.

"He's right." Granite agreed.

"You don't even know her that well! How would you know?!" Shadow yelled.

"Guys, can we just follow Cheese and save everyone else?" Amy said trying to break the quarrel.

"She's right, let's follow this 'Cheese', and save their friends." Granite said.

Shadow sneered, but agreed to follow. He really wasn't against this idea, but he just wanted to look good, not to take orders from an innocent chao.

They followed Cheese in what seemed like forever. Finally, they came up to an empty area.

"And…this is where they are?" Shadow said, now annoyed. "That's it, next time I'm never trusting another chao again!"

"Calm down Shadow, maybe there's a secret entrance to their hideout around here." Silver said.

Suddenly, Cheese was pointing forward.

"What is it Cheese? You want us to go forward?"

Cheese nodded.

"Oh that totally fixes everything!" Shadow shouted sarcastically. "Run forward into more nothingness! That really brings us closer! Good job Cheese! Are you direction challenged, because I think you…"

Amy was now fed up. She hit Shadow in the back of the head with her hammer. Shadow fainted.

"Next time, we're never bringing you with." Amy said. "You always make a problem out of everything!"

Shadow got up. "Look, I didn't have to save your life in the first place, so you better be thankful I did!"

"You're REALLY starting to bug me right now Shadow, besides, you have to learn to control your temper!"

Shadow sneered and groaned this time, staring at Amy as she turned her back.

"Now Cheese, are you sure you want us to go forward?" Amy asked politely.

Cheese nodded again, certain this was the right way.

Shadow pushed his way through. "Look, if there any way we're going to save everyone, then I suggest we stop standing around and get moving!"

"Shadow!! I told you to control your temper!"

"But he's right." Granite said. "We're wasting time just standing here. If we are going to save them, then we can't waste time and we must hurry."

"Right, and if there is a secret way in getting into the phantom's hideout, then let's move forward." Shadow added. "And I'm going first."

"Shadow! Why are you going first?" Amy asked.

"Two very good reasons: one, I want to hurry up and get this over with, and two, you're not going first because if something does happen to you, then there goes our last emerald. You're going to be the person who gets out alive in any danger situation, and the rest of us are the ones who stay behind."

Shadow first put his hand forward, and then it went in this portal. He took it out quickly, and looked at it suspiciously. He picked up a rock and threw it in the portal. Suddenly, it shot right out and it hit Shadow in the head pretty hard. Shadow grimaced, and fainted.

"Shadow, are you all right?" Silver asked.

"I'm fine." Shadow said, shooing away Silver. "What the heck just happened? Why did that rock shoot right back at me?"

"Hmm, I don't know. Portals aren't like that." Silver said.

"I wish I knew the scientific explanation for this." Amy said. Then she sighed. "If only Tails were here, then he would've been able to help us out. But instead, we have to figure it out for ourselves."

"I don't care!" Shadow shouted. "I'm getting in this portal, whether anybody likes it or not!" Then, Shadow ran in the portal.

"Shadow wait!" Amy yelled, trying to stop him. But it was too late. He already went inside. Everyone waited, and waited, and waited, until Shadow shot back out of the portal. He went flying backwards into a boulder.

Everyone ran to him to see if he was all right.

"What is going on here?!" Shadow shouted, now getting frustrated.

"Calm down Shadow, there must be a way to get inside here!" Granite said.

"Yeah, but how? I don't see any way of how we can get inside." Silver said.

Suddenly, Shadow hit his hand on his forehead. "Of course, why didn't I think of this before? I know where Sonic and everyone else are located! In other words, I know where this portal leads to!"

"Where?" Amy asked.

"It leads to the Shadow Steeple, located in that weird-looking, phantom-like ghost town."

"The same place where Sonic went to find that purple emerald?" Amy asked.

"Precisely the place. I was there, but I don't know how to get in."

"How can you not know? You were there!" Silver said.

"I was knocked out cold by the Phantom Leader, and he dragged me inside, so I don't know how to get in." Shadow explained.

Amy started thinking. "You know, it took us a while to get inside the ghost town, because we were in a different dimension."

"You mean to say that this place is in another dimension? What kind?" Silver asked.

"I'm not sure, but we needed the Chaos Emeralds to get in because we needed more power to get inside. You don't think, that in order to get inside, we have to run faster than the speed of sound? Or maybe even at least Mach 3?"

"How much is Mach 3? Or how fast in this case?" Granite asked.

"It's about 2250 miles per hour. The speed of sound is 750 miles per hour. And the speed of light is Mach 4, or 3000 miles per hour." Shadow said.

"Holy crap! You need to go that fast in order to get into just one portal?! That's insane!" Granite yelled.

"Well, yeah, if you set off a full-sized rocket into space, you have to go at least Mach 4 to break the sound barrier, and to fully break away from the gravitational force. If you didn't go that fast, you wouldn't be able to get into space. Same goes here, I guess."

"Yeah, but we have to go back and find Eggman's ship. It might be at his hideout." Amy said.

"Ah, Eggman. We haven't seen him in a long time. Last time we saw him is when we kicked his butt!" Amy said again.

"Correction: after **SONIC **kicked his butt." Shadow said.

"True." Amy said.

"How do we get back there though?" Silver asked.

"Simple." Shadow replied. "I can just use Chaos Control to get there."

"Well, you better hurry!" Granite said. "I'm not sure if we have much time left!"

"Relax, I'll get us there in a flash." Shadow said.

He took Amy's emerald and started concentrating. Finally he shouted, "Chaos Control!" Instantly, they all disappeared and appeared in front of Eggman's base. Inside, Eggman was depressed and angry at the same time.

"Oh, why can't I defeat that meddling hedgehog once, just ONCE?!" he shouted. "When I'm through with this new and improved robot, he'll be sorry that he destroyed my first one! There's no way that he'll be able to defeat me TWO times in a row!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!"

Eggman paused. "Well, considering the fact that he's beaten me numerous times in the past."

Just then, Shadow spoke up. "Hello doctor." He said.

Eggman jumped. "Haven't you heard of knocking?!" he yelled. However, he did not know it was Shadow, and when he turned around, he was surprised.

"Shadow? What are you doing here?"

"Well, you see…" Shadow began.

"Enough, I don't want to hear it!" Eggman yelled back.

_"I told you he wouldn't cooperate." _Shadow whispered to Amy.

"Guards! Seize them!!" Eggman yelled.

Then out of the darkness, a giant robot came towards the gang. But suddenly, they heard the robot loosing power, and fell right in front of Shadow. Everyone stood frozen, while Amy tried not to laugh. Shadow looked down at the robot and kicked its giant head off of its body. The head flew into Eggman's hands.

"Oh, you stupid ROBOT!!" Eggman yelled as he threw the robots head on the floor.

"Gee Eggman, that was pretty pathetic if you ask me." Shadow said. "What's with the robot failure?"

Eggman groaned. "After Sonic defeated my last robot, I started running out of parts to rebuild it. Not only that, I didn't have any energy to run the robot again. Ever since then I've been taking parts and energy from my other ones to rebuild this new one. But, I haven't had much luck. Yes, I am successfully rebuilding my new robot, but my other ones are failingand don't have any more energy left, like the one you briefly encountered."

"So, all of your robots are pretty much done for?" Amy asked.

Eggman groaned again. "That's what it pretty much looks like. If I want to rebuild this robot, I'm probably going to have to sell some stuff, so I can get some money to buy new parts. I might even need to sell my beloved ship and…"

Silver interrupted him. "Hold on! Did you say ship?"

"Yeah, ship. What did you think I said?" Eggman asked.

"So you don't need it anymore?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Well, if it won't be much trouble if we take it?" Amy asked.

Eggman squinted at them. "You? What do you want it for? Why do you need it?"

"Well, we need it to find Sonic and save everyone else."

"I'll give it to you, but on ONE condition:" Eggman said.

"And what's that?" Shadow asked.

"You have to pay me for the ship. I'm selling it, and you pay the money."

"WHAT?!" Silver exclaimed. "We don't have money!"

"Well then, no money, no ship. Now leave if you don't need anything else!" Eggman said.

"Wait!" Amy shouted. "I do have something that might interest you." She pulled out the purple chaos emerald.

"Amy, are you serious? Don't give that away!" Shadow shouted.

"A Chaos Emerald, huh?" Eggman said. He then swiped the emerald from Amy's hands. "Deal! It's done! Take the ship! Use it for whatever reason!" Eggman said as he grinned, eyeing the emerald. "Now, I have another deal: I go with you."

"Now hold on a second!" Amy said. "That's going too…"

However, she was stopped by Shadow. He grabbed her and covered her mouth. "Deal!" Shadow said.

"Alright, then let's head out!" Eggman shouted.

Eggman marched out in front, while Shadow and Amy staggered behind.

"Shadow! Why did you take the deal?" Amy asked.

"Two reasons:" Shadow said. "One, this way we'll be able to keep our eye on the doctor to make sure he won't be doing anything sinister while we're gone, and two, we almost lost that emerald out of our possession, but now, the emerald is still with us."

"If he wanted to do something sinister while we're away, why did he want to go with us?" Amy asked.

Shadow shrugged. "Maybe he wants to kill Sonic, but if that's the case, we'll be able to stop him."

"Ok." Amy said. "I just don't want anything to happen to Sonic, even if he's evil and is a phantom."

They caught up to Eggman, Granite, and Silver outside, behind the base where the ship was located. They entered in the ship and then Eggman turned on the controls.

"Power is on, check. Self Defense system on, check. Lights on, check. Ready for lift-off!" Eggman said.

Then, the ship's power boosters turned on and lifted the entire ship off the ground.

"Here we go!" Silver shouted, excited.

The ship then zoomed at an enormously fast speed. Everything was under control, and Shadow was showing Eggman where to go.

"Stop!" Shadow shouted.

Eggman stopped the ship in midair. "What's the hold up?" he asked.

"Ok, now there's a portal that leads to the other dimension. What we need is for you to go at maximum speed. It's impossible to get through without going at least Mach 3."

"So, you need me to go at maximum speed? But that'll use up a whole lot of energy!" Eggman said.

"Calm down. We only need to go at maximum speed only once. Besides, this is the main reason why we took it in the first place."

"That's the only reason?" Eggman asked. "What a waste! I might as well give this emerald back to you…"

Shadow grinned.

"Then again…" Eggman began. "Why should I?"

Shadow's grin fell. "Look, will you just go at maximum speed please and get this over with?" he asked.

"Very well." Eggman said. "Initiate maximum speed now!" Eggman said.

Then, the boosters in the back started charging up. All of a sudden, the ship flew forward at blinding speed into the portal. However, the ship was stuck.

"I don't know if we can make it through Shadow!" Eggman yelled. The ship was battling with the portal. The portal started pushing them back.

"Eggman, move faster, hurry!" Shadow shouted.

Eggman turned up the speed of the ship, but they were still battling.

"I can't increase the speed any higher!" Eggman shouted. The portal was now pushing them back again.

"We'll never make it!" Amy shouted.

"Yes we will!" Silver shouted back. He used his telekinesis power to move the ship forward. This time, the ship was pushing the portal back.

"We're still not getting through!" Granite shouted.

"This is at my full power!" Silver shouted back.

"How come it was easier to get through this portal last time?" Amy asked Shadow.

"Because last time we had four emeralds with us!" Shadow shouted back.

"We're running out of power!!" Eggman shouted.

"I won't be able to bring the ship through the portal all by myself!!" Silver shouted back. "How will we get through then?"

"I don't know!" Eggman shouted back.

Shadow then went over to Eggman and grabbed the emerald from him. Then, he walked to the entrance.

"Shadow, what are you doing? Get back here!" Eggman shouted. Shadow ignored him.

"Shadow, NO!" Amy shouted.

"Everyone, grab on to something!" Shadow shouted.

"Why?" Silver asked.

"JUST DO IT!!" Shadow shouted back.

They obeyed, and grabbed some control panels on the ship.

"Hold on tight!" Shadow shouted. He opened the door and then almost everything flew out the door. Everyone inside was holding on as tight as they could, and they did not fly out. Shadow on the other hand, did fly out, but that's what he wanted to do.

"What is he doing?" Eggman asked.

Shadow held the emerald tight in his hand as he climbed the roof of the ship. He was crawling on his stomach, grabbing the roof tight with his hands, preventing himself from being blown out of the portal. The force was strong though, as he did have some trouble crawling. The emerald almost flew out of his hand, but he grabbed it just before it blew out. In fact, he almost lost his balance and almost flew out himself, but again, he grabbed the side of the ship before he blew out.

"WE'RE ALMOST OUT OF POWER!!" Eggman yelled.

Shadow made his way to the top of the ship and grabbed the spire.

"WE'RE OUT OF POWER!! WE'RE DOOMED!!" Eggman yelled.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow yelled as he closed his eyes.

Suddenly, the ship disappeared. It reappeared on the other side of the portal. For a moment, it seemed like time stood still. Everyone opened their eyes to find that the ship hovered in midair for a moment, and then fell to the ground. They had successfully made it to the Shadow Steeple.

"Is everyone all right?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, we're fine." They responded.

"WOW!!" Granite yelled. "I've never gone on an daring adventure like that in a long time!! I feel so young!!" Granite yelled extremely happy.

Shadow and Amy smiled at this, seeing how happy he was. Shadow turned around and started walking to the steeple.

"Shadow! Where are you going?" Amy asked.

"Where do you think? To the steeple!" Shadow responded.

"Well, I know that, but aren't you going to help everyone else?"

"Meh, they can catch up to me on their own. Right now, a whole lot of time has been used up, and I'm not going to stand around while everybody else uses up time." Shadow responded.

Amy sighed. "Always great to talk to you Shadow." She said sarcastically.

Meanwhile, Eggman was over to the side, kneeling down at the horribly damaged ship.

"Why did this have to happen?" he said sadly. "It never harmed anyone!"

"Gee, he really needs to get out more." Silver said.

"Shadow, wait up!" Amy said as she was running to catch up.

"Hey, don't leave without us!" Granite shouted. He and Silver left to catch up, while Eggman staggered behind.

Meanwhile in the steeple, Knuckles, Cream, Flash, Static, and Tails were locked up in the cell, guarded by Sonic.

"Let us out! Let us out!" Knuckles shouted.

"Forget it Knuckles, they'll never let us out." Static said.

"Listen to the wise hedgehog, Knuckles." The Phantom Leader said.

"Oh, why don't you shove it!" Knuckles shouted angrily to him.

"Knuckles, keep your cool." Flash whispered to him.

The Phantom got up and flew over to the cage. He grabbed Knuckles by the throat and started choking him. Then, he threw him to the ground.

"Don't test my patience, echidna!!" he shouted to Knuckles. "Or you're going to be Sonic's lunch!"

Knuckles got up. "You can torment us all you want, but I'm sure Shadow and Amy are going to be here soon, and THEN you'll be sorry you tormented us!"

"Them? HA! They don't stand a chance against me! They'll be ripped to shreds when we're done with them, right Sonic?"

Sonic chuckled evilly. "Of course, master."

"That's a good phantom. Soon, you'll be the new leader of the Phantom Elect, and we'll finally rule the world!!"

"I wouldn't count on it!" a voice said from the entrance.

The Phantom looked behind him and saw Shadow, Amy, Granite, Cheese, and Eggman.

"YOU!!" he shouted.

"Shadow! You made it just in time bro!" Static shouted.

"I was expecting you, Shadow. I know you have the emerald. It's time to pay up! Let's make the bargain!"

"Bargain? What bargain?" Shadow asked.

The Phantom chuckled as he snapped his fingers. Sonic went over to the cage and grabbed everyone with his arms. The arms stretched all the way around them, and they were helpless.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Shadow shouted in anger.

"Hmhmhm. It's the bargain, of course. You hand me the final emerald, and your friends will be spared. If you don't cooperate, they will all be Sonic's main course!"

Shadow groaned in total anger.

"I'm waiting for a choice. Oh, and if you take too long, the emerald is mine, and your friends will still be the main course!"

Shadow laughed.

"WHAT'S SO FUNNY?!" the Phantom asked now impatient.

"Really? Sonic? Eat my friends? Ha! That's a laugh. He's a hero, not a villain. He couldn't hurt a fly."

"_Shadow, what are you doing?" _Amy whispered to him.

Shadow looked at her and winked. _"Trust me, I know what I'm doing." _He whispered back.

The Phantom cleared his throat. "Perhaps I wasn't clear on Sonic eating your friends. He's evil all right. And he'll tear anything to shreds."

"Oh really? Prove it!" Shadow said.

"Prove?! What's there to prove?" the Phantom asked.

"How Sonic can tear anything to shreds, no matter how hard or how tough it is." Shadow replied.

"Very well. Release his friends Sonic. We **apparently** need to prove to Shadow here how dangerous you are."

Sonic let go of everyone and turned his attention to the Phantom.

"Bring in the first test." The Phantom ordered.

Immediately, the other phantoms brought out a wooden desk.

"Sonic, annihilate that desk." He ordered.

Sonic ran to the desk and grabbed it with his bare hands. He immediately broke it in half with ease. Then, he finished the residue by chewing on it with his teeth. It only took him five seconds to turn the cracked desk into rubble.

"Very impressive. But I'm still not convinced." Shadow sassed.

"More proof? Well, I guess it's not bad. After all, Sonic's giving quite a workout for his teeth, which will be perfect when he eats your friends. Bring out the second test!"

The phantoms brought out a huge boulder. Sonic did the exact same thing.

"Still not satisfied!" Shadow sassed again.

The Phantom was getting fed up of Shadow's disbelief. So, Sonic went through tons of stuff that he just annihilated easily. However, Sonic was not tiring out, but the Phantom was getting EXTREMELLY annoyed.

"ANY MORE PROOF YOU NEED?!" he asked Shadow.

"Just one more test." Shadow said. "If Sonic can break those bars off that cell and chew them to pieces, then I'll believe."

Without thinking, the Phantom shouted, "DONE! Sonic, chew those bars off!! Once and for all!"

Sonic went over to the cell and tore the bars off the cell. He immediately chewed the bars to pieces.

"NOW DO YOU BELIEVE?!" the Phantom asked.

"Yeah, you win, now I believe. I believe Sonic's got the muscle and the heart to kill, but I don't believe he's got the brains. I think he's gotten WAY dumber when he turned into a phantom. I also believe you don't have the brains either."

"What do you mean?" the Phantom asked.

"Shadow pointed to the cell. However, no one was in it. Sonic and the Phantom were tricked into chewing the bars off the cell, releasing the others.

The Phantom was now enraged. "I'VE BEEN TRICKED!!"

"Now everyone! Attack!!" Knuckles shouted. They were hiding on the ceiling, and then they pounced on the phantoms.

"Don't lose your guard phantoms!" the Phantom commanded. "Do whatever you can to destroy them! We beat them once, we can destroy them now!"

The fight was quite brutal. Static, Flash, and Silver were not having that much trouble due to their superpowers. One phantom almost destroyed Amy.

"Amy, look out!" Static shouted. He then electrified the phantom before he landed on her, and then he followed up with a roundhouse kick.

"You better stick with Shadow, you'll be safer that way."

"Yes, and thank you." She said.

"Your welcome. Now go!" he commanded. She nodded and hid behind Shadow.

"Oh, what am I now, your bodyguard?" he said sarcastically.

"Calm down, it's only until we get everyone out safe and sound." She said.

Shadow groaned. "Alright, but stay behind me at all times. Don't go anywhere, don't interrupt unless it's an emergency, and above all, warn me if you get captured."

Amy rolled her eyes. "No duh, you think?" she muttered.

One of the phantoms came over to Granite. "Time to die old man!"

"Don't underestimate me just by my age." Granite warned him.

The phantom ignored him though and leaped at him. But suddenly Granite pointed his hand at the phantom, and instantly, the phantom turned into solid rock. A second later, the phantom crumbled into dust.

Everyone watched in amazement and awe.

"Granite, that was amazing!" Silver exclaimed. "I didn't know you had superpowers!"

"Yeah, kind of amazing isn't it?" Granite said.

While they were talking, the Phantom snuck very stealthily behind Shadow and grabbed Amy.

"AH!! HELP!!" Amy shouted.

"We got what we need here men!" the Phantom exclaimed. "Time to retreat!"

Instantly, him and his other phantoms vanished into thin air.

"Where could they have gone?" Shadow asked.

"I'm sure they're not far from here!" Static said. "They couldn't have gone far!"

"Guys, look!" Tails suddenly shouted. He pointed to some purple smoke outside.

"That must be them!" Shadow shouted. "Let's follow them!"

"Good idea, I'll lead since I'm the fastest one here." Flash said.

_"I wouldn't say that." _Shadow thought, doubting that Flash was faster than him.

Flash did lead however, and the phantoms fled to an abandoned building.

"Alright girl! Where is the emerald? Don't try to hide it either, because we know you have it!" the Phantom said.

"I don't have it, and that is the truth. I give you my word."

"LIES!! I'LL ASK YOU AGAIN: WHERE IS THE EMERALD??!!" the Phantom asked again, only more angry.

"I don't have it." Amy responded, surprisingly calm. "Now, will you please let me go?!"

"Very well, if you won't give it to us, then I'll have to search your clothes to see if you do have it."

"SEARCH MY CLOTHES?! No way!! Haven't you ever heard of a woman's privacy?" Amy asked in shock.

"No, and I don't care!" the Phantom responded in a rude way. He then turned into smoke and went through her clothes and body however, he couldn't find it.

"She's telling the truth, she doesn't have the emerald." The Phantom said.

"Thank you! Now, I must be going." Amy said as she got up and headed for the door. However, the Phantom blocked the way.

"You're not going ANYWHERE!" he shouted. "Just because you don't have it, doesn't mean you don't know where it is! Now, since you don't have it, who does?"

Amy refused to respond. As a result, the Phantom slapped her with the back of his hand pretty hard. She fell to the ground, and Flash watched in horror to how she was being treated.

"Don't try to be sassy and smart by not answering me and being quiet! You have another chance to live! This is the last time I'll ask you before you'll probably die: who has the emerald?!"

Amy wiped the blood from her mouth. "Very well, you want answer, I'll give you an answer!" she sighed. "Eggman has the emerald."

"Ah, thank you so much. If you would've cooperated earlier, you probably would've left earlier as well."

"NOW, may I go?" Amy asked.

"Yes, you may go." The Phantom responded.

Amy headed for the door, but the Phantom grabbed her.

"Not out that way though." He said.

"Well, how do I get out then? The window?" she said sarcastically.

"Precisely. You're leaving out the window."

"WHAT? But I'll die!" she shouted.

"That's the point! HAHAHA! It was nice knowing you Amy Rose! Have a good afterlife! Adios!"

He then threw her out he window, and she screamed as she was thrown out. However, Flash caught her.

When the Phantom didn't hear anymore screaming, he thought she had died. He looked out the window, hoping to see the dead body. But to his surprise, he didn't.

"What the…" he said.

"What happened?" another phantom asked. "Where is the girl? She should've perished!"

While they were looking out the window, Flash ran in and grabbed the other six emeralds. No one knew he was in there because he faster than the speed of sound. The phantoms turned back and saw that the other emeralds were gone.

"WHAT??!!" the Phantoms shouted furiously. "THEY TOOK THE EMERALDS!! FIND THEM!!!!"

All of the phantoms chased after Flash. Flash then threw the emeralds to Silver.

"Silver, catch!" he shouted. "Now hurry up and use Chaos Control!"

Silver nodded and took one emerald and gave another to Shadow. They then grasped the emeralds in their hands and crossed their arms and said: "CHAOS CONTROL!"

A time portal opened that lead to the future. Everyone jumped in, including Phantom Sonic, and before the other phantoms could get in, it closed on them. The time portal was closed, and the group had traveled back to the future.


End file.
